These proposals included a ban on high capacity magazines, restrictions that would end gun shows and, potentially, stripping millions of gun owners of their rights by placing them on “watch lists” without any due process of law.

At this point, it appears that your efforts to counter these disastrous proposals with GOA-backed initiatives have backed the gun grabbers into a corner, and we are optimistic that their plans are stymied for now.

Senate rules survive attack by the Far Left
In late January, GOA members and activists largely won a battle in the U.S. Senate that will have huge implications over the next two years.

At issue was the Senate filibuster, a well-known but little understood procedural maneuver that allows a minority of Senators to block legislation unless debate is “shut off” by a supermajority — usually sixty votes.

The filibuster has been particularly important to gun owners, as it has been used to stop the leadership of both parties in their efforts to end gun shows and ban so-called assault weapons. It has also been used for such purposes as slowing down (and forcing changes to) legislation to expand the Brady law.

The filibuster was put on the chopping block by anti-gun senators in late January, since they consider it an “arcane rule” that has been a pesky impediment to their socialist agenda.

On the first day the Senate returned to Washington in January, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sought to place his own judgment over the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and hundreds of years of precedent.

In a blatant abuse of power, Senate Democrats argued that the chamber is not a “continuing body” and, therefore, its standing rules could be changed on the first legislative day of the session by a simple vote of fifty Senators (plus Vice-President Biden). If successful, the plan would have ended the filibuster entirely in order to ram through whatever legislation they and President Obama wished.

The only way to accomplish this, however, was to throw the entirety of the Senate rules out the window. But even some Democrats were unwilling to go along with this scheme. To buy time, the anti-gunners even used a magic calendar and stretched the first legislative day from January 5 all the way to January 25.

Alone among Second Amendment groups, GOA fought against this rules change. And we won what may prove to be the most important Senate victory of the next two years — something for which GOA members deserve a lot of credit.

The importance of this win cannot be overstated. Failure would have opened the door, for example, to a host of gun control legislation that typically follows a highly publicized tragedy such as the shooting in Tucson.

Anti-gun ObamaCare on the ropes?
There's been a lot of news on ObamaCare during the last month. In a massive blow to the Obama administration's socialist anti-gun agenda, Florida federal district judge Roger Vinson held that ObamaCare was unconstitutional and “non-severable.” This means that, if the decision is upheld, the entire law goes into the trash bin.

A few days before this court decision, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the anti-gun law by a tally of 245-189.

The repeal bill faces tougher challenges in the Senate, but there are many ways it could still pass. While many people believe the bill will fail in the Senate regardless, the truth is that many bills start without a majority of support in Congress, but ultimately get passed.

If Republicans choose to tack an ObamaCare repeal onto the federal appropriations bill (the “continuing resolution”) or the debt limit increase, Obama will have no choice but to sign away his own treasured legacy. His only alternative would be to shut down all of his rule-making agencies for the remainder of his term.

The vote in the House was a huge victory for gun rights activists, as ObamaCare will allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to troll a federal database containing your most confidential health care data in order to create millions of new “prohibited persons” for the FBI's Instant Check system.

GOA thanks its members and activists for taking action to pressure the U.S. Congress in support of these victories. The thanks are extremely heartfelt, because it is YOUR willingness to act that tips the scales in such fights, and allows GOA to continue to be a force that elected officials dare not ignore.

About:
Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. GOA sees firearms ownership as a freedom issue. `The only no comprise gun lobby in Washington' – Ron Paul

2

Leave a Reply

For some reason only GOA recognizes the threat of gun control in the Obama-care health plan.

Statistics show that people suffering from health issue like PTSD are no more likely to commit a crime than any other demographic group, something the NRA refuses to accept.

Under the current interpretation of the law if one person is disqualified then the entire household is disqualified. [sick]

We need to repeal the laws and stop the confiscation of firearms under the color of law.

Vote Up0Vote Down

8 years ago

Guest

FrankInFL

Halt funding to the FAA? Perfect! Let me tell you where that's going. If the FAA gets de-funded by Congress, before any ATC runs out of pocket change, the CEOs of 30 major airlines will all be in the same room creating an independent corporation, FAA Inc., and its tasks will continue without skipping a beat, never to be under the federal thumb again. De-fund the FAA? Yes, please. Schumer, McCarthy, & Co. Inc. will not just lose one battle, they'll lose two. When the dust settles, people will be asking: if we can de-federalize FAA, what else could we… Read more »